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sdlTBfanUK 92

sdlTBfanUK 92

Very smart little tank you have there. I have a tank with neons and red cherries as well.

GH for cherries is usually 6-8, the figure you quoted is usually the taiwan bees so if you aim for 7-8 you have less reduction to aim for! You should probably also keep a check on the TDS as that is easy to make sure they are both in line?

That's way too high even for Neon Tetras. They prefer the soft waters, just like the amazon river.

What gravel do you have in the tank? - take a handful and put it in a plastic cup with some distilled water. Measure the GH and TDS. Then wait 1 day and re-measure the water in the cup. If the GH and TDS have increased, then the gravel is your culprit.

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Ibeshrimpin 4

Ibeshrimpin 4

GH was at 22 before so it has gone down slightly. I have done as you have said and letting the cup with DW and gravel sit there till tomorrow.

I bought regular gravel from petco (dont think it was anything special)

as for the high TDS and GH values, I have two suspicions. The giant rock I had in there earier (picture below), and I had a cheap vacation feeder (aso in picture below) that slowly melted and covered everything in white/“light pinkish color ALL over when I returned from a 5 day vacation.

Does the vacation feeder change water parameters?

I gravel vacuumed and did a 30% water change but may still have residue?

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sdlTBfanUK 92

sdlTBfanUK 92

Those vacation feeders can cause a real mess with tank water parameters. Gravel vac the spots where the feeder melted.

The rock might have contributed to the increased GH as well, but not nearly as much as the feeder.

Feeder blocks are nothing but 90% calcium wrapped around a small portion of food. Never use feeders.

You can stop the gravel in a cup test too. We have found the cause.

As always JayC has it sorted. Just wanted to say many years ago when I started I bought some blocks of something (I think they were calcium) which looked like blocks of chalk! There were sold as 'good for shrimps' (off ebay) but boy did they throw the TDS through the roof - I wasn't testing GH then as I was new to keeping shrimp. I don't recall it killing any (neocaridina) shrimp though, but binned the rest of the blocks! I suspect that crab was made of same/similar going by the look/texture.

The only good thing was, as said, it didn't kill any shrimp, weirdly so you shouldn't need to panic!

The rock in the picture looks like it may be sandstone, but I couldn't be 100% on that as my screen is quite small?

Posts

Thank you for the reply.
So I get that I will need to start again with fresh shrimp but can those shrimp go into the existing tank once all of the old colony have been removed? Is there any chance that the ellobiopsidae could harbour in any of the tank elements such as substrate and filter for example and therefore be introduced to the new shrimp?

Since "ellobiopsidae" aka "green fungus" aka "algae" can show up 3 or 6 months later, or even 2 years later, you either need to treat the entire tank and hope you eliminate it or or restart the tank with fresh blood. (new shrimp that are not from imports)

The reddit person's neighbor may have used high VOC paint which is more deadly. (primer typically has high VOC) Unfortunately without more details, it's hard to say. I've had shrimp die because roommate put a food grade bag into the microwave. It was not microwaveable safe. Three weeks later, neighbors bug bombed their place. Both incidents resulted in a massive die off....
chongkt another option maybe is to get an oxydator that creates oxygen *in* the tank, rather than pulling oxygen from the surrounding area.

First off, you want a substrate that buffers the pH down around 6.5 or below.
Second, the RO water or distilled as recommended. If you have soft water, then a cheap RO machine can work, although the replacement cartridges may be the same amount as a new machine. If you have hard water, then I would recommend a more expensive RO unit.
Third, you'll need GH minerals for shrimp. (no KH)
Make sure you have a liquid test kit that measures all water parameters, including GH and KH. A TDS meter with calibration solution is also recommended.
Sponge filters with an air pump can be used for filtration. It's recommended to get the type that suction to the side of the aquarium.